Leaving Your Comfort Zone

By faith, Noah ignored the critics and built an ark in the desert. By faith, Abraham left his home to go to a faraway place because God called him to do so. By faith, Sarah believed God and bore a son in her old age. By faith, Moses rejected life as royalty to live as a shepherd and be mistreated by oppressors. By faith, God’s people crossed the Red Sea on dry ground, while the Egyptians were all drowned as they pursued. All of these people left comfortable circumstances to go where God led them and do what God called them to do.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Faith requires that we come out of our comfort zone to a place where we trust Him to do that which we need done. When we have fear, it is the opportunity to trust God to overcome that which we fear. By faith, we don’t always receive that which we want, but we do receive that which we need.

Transformed

We may look at the professional athlete, performer, billionaire, or other leader and decide that we want to become like them. So we learn, practice, and give it our best efforts. Most of us will fail, at least to some degree, because we don’t not have the same opportunities and innate abilities. Although it is often said, it is not true that you can be whatever you want to be. Real transformation comes from inside, from our hearts.

Hebrews 10:14 says, “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” By the one sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, God sees us true believers as perfected in Him. We are now in the process of becoming like Him, that is sanctified. As we exercise faith, He builds us into His image, transformed from our former likeness.

Overcoming

When I face a struggle, I have two go-to responses. One is to simply give up, but that doesn’t help me at all. The other is to just keep pushing through. I rarely ask for help or seek guidance.

John 16:33 says, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Those of us who have trusted in Jesus Christ can have peace through the struggles we face in this world. We don’t find peace by trying to overcome our troubles in ourselves. Take heart knowing that Jesus has overcome the world and He is in you. He has overcome and will help you overcome any struggle.

Inventions

Have you ever looked at a situation and thought of some invention that would make the situation better? Or, have you been doing something and someone makes a suggestion or gives you a tool to make the task easier and the end result better?

God does this for us. He gives us a task to do, knowing full well that we can’t do the task well in our own abilities. So He gifts us with the ability and wisdom to do the task better. Without this gifting from God, we wouldn’t be able to do the good that He designed for us to do and we sure wouldn’t be able to glorify Him with our efforts.

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the story of a master who gave servants gifts to use in their work. He says to the servants who used these gifts wisely, “Well done, good and faithful servant. you have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” God expects us to faithfully use the gifts that He has given us to do good and to bear fruit for His glory. When we faithfully use His gifts, we are surrounded by His joy.

You Can Fool Some of the People Some of the Time

I find that I frequently compare myself to other people. I don’t mean to, it just seems to come naturally to me. Most of the time, it is an effort to make myself feel better about myself. Either I see myself as doing better than the other person, or justify what I am doing by seeing others do the same thing. Other times I may do something that I view as kind or nice, but my motives are still self-serving. We cannot accurately evaluate the motives or other people, as we are often deceived by even our own motives.

Luke 16:15 says, “And he (Jesus) said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” We can think highly of ourselves when we compare ourselves to other people. But God is not fooled by these comparisons, He knows what is in our hearts, whether our intentions are good or selfishly motivated. Often what we think is good, is an abomination to God. Let’s stop judging ourselves and others by worldly comparisons, but instead seek pure hearts and loving intentions based upon God’s leading in our lives.